Hungary Calls April Ballot as Orban Seeks to Extend His Rule

Hungary will hold general elections on April 8, with Prime Minister Viktor Orban on track to extend his tenure as one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders. President Janos Ader’s announcement on Thursday formally kicked off the campaign for an election that looks set to resemble the 2014 ballot, when Orban’s Fidesz party secured its second consecutive constitutional majority. Polls show the party, which has clashed with the European Union by opposing the bloc’s liberal, multicultural values, may get more than the 45 percent of votes it got then, which translated into more than two thirds of all seats in parliament.